Antarctica in 2006

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Representatives from some 50 governments and international organizations met in Edinburgh during June 12–23, 2006, for the 29th Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting (ATCM). The delegates considered decisions on protected areas, monuments, and species (seals and petrels); new site guidelines for visitors to Antarctica; and new practical guidelines for ballast-water exchange by ships in the Southern Ocean. The representatives also adopted the Edinburgh Antarctic Declaration on the International Polar Year 2007–2008, announcing to the world the significance of the international scientific cooperative endeavours to be pursued during the International Polar Year. As part of the ATCM, the Committee on Environmental Protection also held its ninth meeting. The committee approved a new Antarctic Specially Managed Area to be located in Admiralty Bay, South Shetland Islands; discussed new marine protected areas; and submitted proposals for three new protected areas.

With the number of tourists visiting Antarctica having quadrupled in the past decade, tourism was an important topic of discussion at the ATCM. During the 2005–06 austral summer, more than 29,500 tourists visited Antarctica by ship. Another 1,078 flew to and landed on the continent. These numbers, as well as an additional 1,165 tourists who participated in overflights of the continent, represented a 12% increase over the 2004–05 austral summer. All but three ships that sailed to Antarctica were operated by members of the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators. These three ships and other non-IAATO air tours brought another 4,639 passengers to Antarctica.

Antarctic tourists use a zodiac boat to explore icebergs in the South Orkney Islands in January.

In January 2006, members of the Australian National Antarctic Program welcomed representatives of the Romanian Antarctic program to Law-Racovita Base, located in the Larsemann Hills, Princess Elizabeth Land, near Australia’s Davis Station. The base, which was built by the Australians in 1986, was to be jointly occupied by the two programs.

The Chilean government transferred ownership of Arturo Prat Station to the Punta Arenas regional government, which was expected to work with private institutions and the Instituto Antártico Chileno (the organization responsible for the Chilean Antarctic program) to improve management of science, tourism, educational activities, and logistics. Arturo Prat, the first Chilean Antarctic station, was operated from 1947 until 2004.

In a paper published in the Journal of Geophysical Research Letters, Canadian scientist John Fyfe and others reported evidence that the Southern Ocean was getting warmer. Their findings showed that the Southern Ocean warmed twice as fast as the oceans worldwide and that increased emissions of greenhouse gases (particularly carbon dioxide) were directly contributing to this increase.

At a workshop sponsored by UNESCO and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research, 163 scientists from 29 countries concluded that since 1990 sea level had risen about 3.2 mm (1 mm = about 0.04 in) per year, a rate about 1.7 mm per year faster than in the previous 90 years. Although about half of the rise could be accounted for by thermal expansion of the oceans, melting glaciers and ice sheets were also making significant contributions.

Although scientists anticipated that the ozone hole over Antarctica (which occurs annually between September and November), might begin to decrease in size by 2010, the depletion in 2006 was record-setting. At its maximum on September 24, the 2006 ozone hole matched the area of the largest hole on record (29.5 million sq km [about 11.4 million sq mi], set on Sept. 9, 2000) and was the deepest ever recorded.

The 10-nation European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica completed drilling in East Antarctica in January 2006 and retrieved an ice core 2,774-m (1 m = about 3.28 ft) long. Comparing this core with ice cores drilled in Greenland, the researchers found a strong north-south link, highlighting the role of the “Atlantic conveyor belt” in the process of heat transfer. Although climate changes in the Northern Hemisphere were well documented, only recently had scientists been able to demonstrate similar Southern Hemisphere variations.

In another ice-core investigation in Antarctica, researchers found evidence of heat-loving bacteria living in subglacial Lake Vostok. The presence in the ice-covered lake of these thermophilic bacteria, which had no contact with the atmosphere or sunlight, suggested that there might be hydrothermal vents on the lake floor. The ice cover on the subglacial lake had never been penetrated, but Russian scientists in 2006 resumed drilling and extended the core to a depth of 3,650 m. This drilling brought the core closer to the water surface, and it was hoped that the core would reveal more information about the nature of this hidden lake.

U.S. scientists reported that they had found a 483-km (about 300-mi)-wide crater underneath the ice in Wilkes Land, East Antarctica. The location and size of the crater suggested that it had been created by a meteor impact. The newly identified crater was more than twice the size of the crater in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula that was believed to mark the impact that ultimately led to the demise of the dinosaurs. Researchers speculated that the impact in Antarctica could have begun the breakup of the supercontinent Gondwanaland by creating a tectonic rift that pushed Australia northward.

In early 2006 an American-Argentine research team recovered the well-preserved fossil skeleton of a juvenile plesiosaur—a marine reptile that swam the waters of the Southern Ocean roughly 70 million years ago. The fossil remains represented one of the most-complete plesiosaur skeletons ever found and was thought to be the best-articulated fossil skeleton ever recovered from Antarctica. The creature would have inhabited Antarctic waters during a period when the Earth and its oceans were far warmer than in modern times.

Ice averaging 2,160 m (7,085 ft) in thickness covers more than about 98% of the continent of Antarctica, which has an area of 14 million sq km (5.4 million sq mi). There is no indigenous human population, and there is no land-based industry. Human activity consists mainly of scientific research. The 45-nation Antarctic Treaty is the managerial mechanism for the region south of latitude 60° S, which includes all of Antarctica. The treaty reserves the area for peaceful purposes, encourages cooperation in science, prescribes environmental protection, allows inspections to verify adherence, and defers the issue of territorial sovereignty.